Next summer's hills?

Leonard Trim said:

Have just found out that I should be able to get away abroad to the
hills next year for a fortnight. Some walking, scrambling and low grade
climbing appeals. Thinking about the Pyrenees or via ferrata in the
Dolomites or possibly even trekking in the High Atlas. Time dor some
Autumnal wishful thinking---what do you guys advise.

The Austrian Tyrol is superb - not just the walking, but also the bits
in between: lovely villages, terrific bars and restaurants, excellent
service, etc.

--
R
o
o
n
e
y

"I always knew the entire Green party were nutters" - Ken Livingstone

Quoted message said:

Have just found out that I should be able to get away abroad to the
hills next year for a fortnight. Some walking, scrambling and low grade
climbing appeals. Thinking about the Pyrenees or via ferrata in the
Dolomites or possibly even trekking in the High Atlas. Time dor some
Autumnal wishful thinking---what do you guys advise.

Trekked the High Atlas Mountains a coupe of years ago, culminating with an
ascent of Jabel Toubkal. Brilliant 9 day trek ......... but the area is
very barren compared to what you would see in the Pyrenees or the Dolomites.
Also, High Atlas is off the beaten track, so no nice diners, bars comfy beds
etc, but it was fun.

Take a view of the trip on my website, address below. Give you a feel for
the area we trekked.

--
sandy saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk
email: saunders.sandy at ntlworld.com

'Mountains or Mole Hills ... summiting still
brings the same excitement'

sorry ......

Quoted message said:

Trekked the High Atlas Mountains a coupe

read 'couple'

Quoted message said:

of years ago, culminating with an ascent of Jabel Toubkal. Brilliant 9 day
trek ......... but the area is

read 'Jebel'

--
sandy saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk
email: saunders.sandy at ntlworld.com

'Mountains or Mole Hills ... summiting still
brings the same excitement'

The message <[email hidden]>
from "sandy saunders" <[email hidden]> contains these words:

Quoted message said:

Trekked the High Atlas Mountains a coupe of years ago, culminating with an
ascent of Jabel Toubkal. Brilliant 9 day trek ......... but the area is
very barren compared to what you would see in the Pyrenees or the
Dolomites.
Also, High Atlas is off the beaten track, so no nice diners, bars
comfy beds
etc, but it was fun.

Quoted message said:

Take a view of the trip on my website, address below. Give you a feel for
the area we trekked.

Quoted message said:

--
sandy saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk
email: saunders.sandy at ntlworld.com

Nice website and the trek certainly looks interesting. I have made a
note of the trekking company. Thank you.

--
Len Trim
[email hidden]

sandy saunders said:

Trekked the High Atlas Mountains a coupe of years ago

<harrumph> We were supposed to go a while back but someone
at work dropped a table on my wife's foot and broke her toe
two days before we were due to fly.

Chris

Quoted message said:

<harrumph> We were supposed to go a while back but someone
at work dropped a table on my wife's foot and broke her toe
two days before we were due to fly.

What a cheek!

Any future plans for the trip? Or as something more important taken over?

--
sandy saunders @ www.thewalkzone.co.uk
email: saunders.sandy at ntlworld.com

'Mountains or Mole Hills ... summiting still
brings the same excitement'

sandy saunders wrote

Quoted message said:

Any future plans for the trip? Or as something more important taken over?

The latter, really. Three weeks in NZ at Christmas has kind of stopped us
doing too much foreign stuff this year and what with Costa Rica and
Patagonia coming up its likely to stay on the backburner for a while yet :-)

Chris

Quoted message said:

The latter, really. Three weeks in NZ at Christmas has kind of stopped us

And what did you end up doing in NZ?

M.

--
From Sunny South Canterbury

Mark Houghton said:

And what did you end up doing in NZ?

That's *this* Xmas Mark :-)

We presently have a loose plan based on picking up a camper
at Christchurch and spending 12 days on South Island, either
side of that we're spending a few days with friends in Auckland.
I think we've already pretty much decided that this will be
a factfinding visit and that we'll have to visit again to do
Fjordland, Queen Charlotte, Abel Tasman and perhaps even Caitlins
properly. It should nonetheless be a lot of fun.

Chris

In message <[email hidden]>

Chris Gilbert said:

Mark Houghton said:

And what did you end up doing in NZ?

That's *this* Xmas Mark :-)

We presently have a loose plan based on picking up a camper
at Christchurch and spending 12 days on South Island, either
side of that we're spending a few days with friends in Auckland.
I think we've already pretty much decided that this will be
a factfinding visit and that we'll have to visit again to do
Fjordland, Queen Charlotte, Abel Tasman and perhaps even Caitlins
properly. It should nonetheless be a lot of fun.

Chris

Two winters ago we visited NZ and spent just over 3 weeks split between
the North and the South Island. We started off by flying in to
Christchurch where an old climbing club friend now lives, and then went
approximately clockwise round the South Island, then crossed to
Wellington and visited my wifes pen friend there, before going north
towards Auckland from where we returned to the UK.

Both islands are quite spectacular, but my preference was definitely for
the South Island. If I went back for a similar length trip I'd spend
almost the entire time in the South Island and would probably want to
devote more time to just exploring a few areas much more intensely.

The possibilities for multi-day hiking are fantastic and the DOC has a
network of remote huts and hillstations that you can make use of. We
did a few 3 day walks, but I'd like to return and go on longer trips. We
also avoided the more famous trails in favour of ones that were less
frequented. Why go to somewhere remote and unpopulated like NZ and then
end up on a popular trail with a quota system and full huts!

We hired a Honda CRV 4x4 and camped using a Macpac Stellar which we
purchased in Christchurch. The official campsites around NZ are very
well equipped, most of them having a communal kitchen area meaning that
it is unnecessary to cook in the tent in bad weather conditions. The
mountain and forest huts are also well equipped and you can purchase a
membership from the DOC that gives you reduced rates for their use.

Away from the towns, mobile phone coverage is very patchy. When walking
in the wilderness it is possible to hire from the DOC radio sets (we
didn't bother) which will allow you to communicate with radio hams if
you wish to have an emergency means of contact. These can also allow you
to request pickup by jet boats or planes from the many landing strips
that are served by ad hoc boat and air-taxi operators. We were able to
make arrangements from some of the huts. Being cut off by flooding
rivers is a common occurrence, so getting out by plane or boat may be
the only option. I remember on Christmas eve we had to make a tricky
ford of a stream and waterfall in spate, at the only possible crossing
point, before we could get to the nearby hut. When we arrived we were
greeted with surprise by the hut warden since a guided party had earlier
radioed to say they couldn't get through. Because of the bad weather the
only other visitors to the Hut over Christmas were a German and two from
the Netherlands. Overnight the temperature plummeted and in the morning
we were confronted with several inches of fresh snow and gale force
winds. As we left the hut to come down we speculated on what the weather
conditions were like back in the UK!

Hope you have a good trip.

Mike
--
o/ \\ // |\ ,_ o Mike Clark
<\__,\\ // __o | \ / /\, "A mountain climbing, cycling, skiing,
"> || _`\<,_ |__\ \> | immunology lecturer, antibody engineer and
` || (_)/ (_) | \corn computer user"

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

And what did you end up doing in NZ?

That's *this* Xmas Mark :-)

Doh! Time doesn't fly as much as I think sometimes!

Have fun here, anyhow. If you've only got 12 days you'll be in a hurry. To
save time, race through Queenstown, and to get to Te Anua instead. But it's
all good.

M.